European regions against Brussels: the 2028–2034 budget puts cohesion policy at risk

Brussels – With its controversial proposal for the Union’s budget 2028–2034, the European Commission has “succeeded in a miracle,” commented the president of Abruzzo, Marco Marsilio, sarcastically. The miracle he is referring to is that of uniting all the regions of Europe, from north to south, from east to west, across the political spectrum: today, all together, they rejected, with a unanimously adopted resolution of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), a budget plan that seriously jeopardises the future of cohesion policy. 

The alarm resounds a bit everywhere. Several Member States have already spoken out against the proposal put on the table in July by Brussels, as have most of the political groups in the EU Parliament. On Monday, 13 October, on the occasion of the opening of the 23rd European Week of Regions and Cities, the president of the CoR
Kata Tüttő had already entered her institution on the list of complaints. In a press conference together with Raffaele Fitto, executive vice-president of the European Commission responsible precisely for cohesion, Tüttő had underlined the risks of an excessive centralisation of the financial instrument dedicated to local authorities and in particular to the most disadvantaged territories.

The President of the European Committee of the Regions, Kata Tutto [European Union / Claudio Centoze]

Now, the resolution adopted by the CoR plenary session puts it all in writing. As conceived by Ursula von der Leyen, the long-term EU budget proposal “could lead to further centralisation in the hands of the Commission and nationalisation of cohesion policy, fisheries and agricultural policy, putting them in competition with each other.” Moreover, it would risk “undermining democracy in Europe due to the expected lack of control by the European Parliament and national or regional parliaments over regional investments.” 

On the one hand, the CoR denounces the lack of guarantees that all regions have access to the cohesion policy. On the other hand, it warns against merging the cohesion funds and the Common Agricultural Policy into “a single nationalised package with no clear allocation criteria,” which could provoke possible competition between farmers and local communities. The regions are now appealing to the institutions that have the prerogatives to stop the proposal: “The European Parliament and the Council of the EU must now take responsibility to stop these plans and avoid an increase in institutional conflicts and chaos,” said Tüttő, who today led a flash mob in the square in front of the EU Parliament. 

Marco Marsilio, President of Abruzzo, at the European Committee of the Regions [© European Union / Octavian Carare

Melonian Fitto acts as a lightning rod, and it will be up to him to first make himself heard with von der Leyen within the College of Commissioners. “Cohesion without the regions is impossible,” the executive vice-president tried to placate tempers. Yesterday, the Italian regions met the cohesion officer at the European Parliament in Brussels. “We will try to give it more strength,” explained the equally melonian Marsilio, counting on the fact that such a “unanimous uprising, involving the entire political spectrum, will make the Commission see reason.” 

From the wide field, Stefania Proietti (centre-left independent) and Alessandra Todde (M5S), presidents of Umbria and Sardinia, also reiterated that “this time we are one, there is no political distinction.” For Proietti, we are facing an attempt to “deprive the regions of the cohesion policies,” while Todde, who leads one of those island regions that have benefited most from the instrument so far, denounced: “This way we are denied the right to be like the other regions.”